Students Take Mission Trip to Las Vegas, Porn Expo

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A group of students from a Seattle-area church joined XXXChurch to spread Jesus' love at the annual AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas this past weekend.

For the nearly two dozen people from EastLake Community Church, it was a mission trip.

While the term mission trip typically conjures up the image of vaccination shots, a foreign village, and a completely different culture from that of the missionaries, Jake Larson – an associate of XXXChurch – says there's tons of need in Sin City and other U.S. cities.

"You don't have to go around the world," he said.

EastLake and XXXChurch members took to the streets of the Las Vegas Strip and to strip clubs distributing bottles of water, food, and Jesus Loves Porn Stars Bibles. They also manned a booth at the 2010 Adult Entertainment Expo, engaged in conversations with visitors and told participants "Jesus loves you."

"God's love is infinity more intense than any love we could offer and He is committed to reveal that love to everyone. This includes those the church will often count out – porn stars, prostitutes, druggies, pedophiles, dead beat dads, you, and me," Larson wrote in his blog.

XXXChurch has been present at the Vegas porn convention every year since 2002. The ministry's motto is to just show up and share the love of Christ, and not to condemn or point fingers.

Now based in Las Vegas, the ministry – founded by Craig Gross – has established Strip Church and regularly goes out to trade shows, brothels and strip clubs to spread the love of Christ. Young students from other cities visit on short missions trips to gain ministry experience and to be trained to reach out to their surrounding communities.

"No new languages needed for this trip," the ministry says. "You will learn practical things on this trip that you can take back to your city and your every day life."

In the most recent Vegas mission trip, Kendall Siemers of EastLake Church said she came across many couples at the expo that told her porn made their relationship better.

"It was amazing to me to see people so willingly bring something so dangerous into their most intimate relationship," Siemers reflected. "The porn industry has so skewed how we view sex, completely twisting God's original design. Seeing it firsthand breaks my heart."

XXXChurch and Strip Church are under the banner of Fireproof Ministries.